Twenty-five years ago today, a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, sending material into the air. As the LA TImes reports, "Over 20 days, radioactive smoke and other products emanated from the plant, spreading out over parts of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus and extending, in lower concentrations, around the world." Today, people reflected—and protested—on this anniversary.
The initial explosion killed two people and then 30 people died of radiation poisoning, but about 6,000 cases of thyroid cancer have been linked to the explosion (a survivor of the explosion who was 4 years old at the time spoke to NPR about beating cancer). In the wake of the Fukushima power plant, the still-worrisome Japanese nuclear power plant affected by the earthquake that is at the same crisis level that Chernobyl was at, there are comparisons between the two catastrophes and worries about existing nuclear plants, like our own Indian Point.
Today, Greenpeace unfurled a banner at Grand Central and "checked" radiation levels in Times Square. Its nuclear policy analyst, Jim Riccio, said, "Will it take a Chernobyl or a Fukushima on US soil before we understand that nuclear power is unnecessary, dangerous and expensive? If a similar catastrophic release of radiation occurred at Indian Point, millions of people would be at risk, and evacuation would be impossible. We need to shut down Indian Point, and phase out nuclear power in favor of safe solutions like renewable energy and energy efficiency."
National Geographic has photographs from the 1986 disaster.
